Recruitment Consulting Expert in APAC ICT Industry

With the advancement of wireless technologies like 2G,3G & LTE, Bluetooth, Cloud Computing etc it has become possible to connect more and more devices with each other and make them communicate. Also, broadband internet is becoming more widely available, the cost of connecting is decreasing, more devices are being created with wifi capabilities and sensors built into them, technology costs are going down & smart phone penetration is sky-rocketing. This has given the birth to Internet of Things (IoT) or M2M.

What is Internet of Things (IoT)?

In a very simple words, IoT is connecting any device with an on & off switch to the Internet (and/or with each other). This includes everything from cell phones, coffee makers, aircons, cars, washing machines, wearable devices and almost anything else you can think of.

The analyst firm Gartner says that by 2020 there will be over 26 billion connected devices. That’s lots of devices communicating with each other.

Stuart Taylor, Managing Director-Service Provider vertical from Cisco explains IoT being a combination of 5 technology pillars which are instrumental in making the concept of Connected World a reality.

Wireless: As I mentioned above, advancements in wireless technologies is the key to the concept of IoT. Today’s High speed networks has made it possible for people & devices to communicate without the need of a wire. It is possible to collect & transmit information for things that are moving (cars, trains etc); things which are remote (oil wells, farms, golf courses etc).

Big Data: Once billions of applications, sensors & devices are connected to the internet they will generate zettabytes of data. This enormous data if processed properly will help us to do amazing things. This has also given birth to today’s advanced data analytics tools & softwares which are capable to manage this vast amount of data & reveal amazing relationships and insights. As a result, machines will be able to intelligently interact with each other.

Cloud: Cloud Computing is the glue that holds the IoT together. Cloud provides an efficient and cost-effective means to process & store all the data created by IoT which in turn allows all the sensors to communicate with applications, control & monitor devices across multiple networks, anytime & anywhere.

Devices: The devices are the “Things” in the Internet of Things (IoT). Lots of R&D efforts are being put in across the globe to come up with devices which can be internet enabled, can be connected to the network & Cloud, consumes less power etc. Best example of this is the investment Google is putting in in developing Connected Cars.

Security – With the involvement of internet or network comes the security threat. In recent times there has been lots of hacking incidents globally which poses a big question onto security of IoT. How to ensure that the Connected Cars where the rider has no control over it won’t get hacked by a hacker? Regulators and Sensor/device manufacturers will have to come up with a way to secure IoT.

The applications of IoT are far & wide, for example, lets say you went on a holiday and suddenly realised that you have forgotten to turn off your aircon in the living room. You might get worried about it during your holiday but thanks to IoT, because your aircon is connected with you mobile phone via an app and both these devices can communicate with each other you will be able to switch the aircon off with just one click on your mobile phone.

Another example, ambulances are now being connected with hospital hence if the ambulance is carrying a patient having a heart attach to hospital, while its on the way the built-in ECG monitoring device in the ambulance connected to the hospital will transmit the heart condition data of the patient to the doctors sitting in the hospital in real-time and by the time the ambulance carrying the patient reaches the hospital, the doctors are aware of his condition and potential treatment actions they are going to take.

Traffic stoplights adjust to real-time conditions automatically to improve the flow of traffic.

Finally, with these advancements, the concept of Smart Cities is picking up quickly. Such cities has digital technology embedded across all city functions and mainly in sectors of transport, energy, health care, water & waste.

Obviously, IoT will raise our standard of living and it will help to improve our quality of life. We will be able to have more information which will eventually help us to take informed decisions in a timely manner & cost effective manner. Our world will be more energy efficient which is currently need of the hour when we are running out of energy resources.

However, there are some challenges which we will face with the implementation of IoT. The biggest challenge to IoT according to me will be the security. With billions of devices being connect together how can we make sure that their information stays secure? Today hackers or cyber terrorists are on the lookout of how to gain control of networks for their ill motives. Imagine an airplane’s navigation or engine system which is connected via sensors being hacked by some terrorist group on the ground and they take control of the airplane. How someone can hack the waste management system of a smartcity and endangers the safety of the entire city.

Another challenge will be the complexity of the IoT systems. With the Internet of Things, system failures could sky rocket. For instance, a bug in the software of a company’s automatic raw material ordering system can end up ordering the inventory everyday instead of placing the order once a month.

Finally, at present there is no regulatory body governing the standards of IoT and compatibility for tagging & monitoring equipments. Governance is critical for the success of any revolutionary technology to ensure that standards are in-placed and same standards are being followed globally so that the end users get consistent & quality products.

In conclusion, I see IoT as the game changing technology in near future and by 2020 I believe our globe will see lots of connected devices & smart cities which will improve human beings standard of living. There are challenges as mentioned above but various global companies & governments are making necessary investments onto R&D to overcome them. Noting is impossible and we are set to see a great revolution with IoT in our life.

Last 2 decades have seen immense technological advancements which has lead to shorter product lifecycles and given birth to a concept of disruptive businesses or technologies.

Though the term disruptive technologies was first coined by Clayton M Christensen in 1995, it was in 2009 that this term gained popularity.

A Disruptive innovation is an innovation that helps create a new market & value network and eventually disrupts an existing market and value network (over a few years or decades) displacing an earlier technology.

There has been disruptive technological advances in almost all industries recently for example, Self driving cars in automobile industry or Golden rice in Genetic Engineering or Crypto-Currencies in Banking Industry etc.

In my views, a major disruption has been created by the invention of internet followed by mobile data invention like the 2G, 3G & now LTE. Apple created a major disruption when they launched the first smartphone, iPhone, and marked the end of GSM phone ages. Many mobile device manufacturing companies were caught by surprise when iPhone was launched. First time the world was introduced to the concept of “app store”.

Various other companies like Samsung, Lenovo, Nokia etc followed suit and came up with their own smartphones but Apple held the first mover advantage. However, it was not long before Samsung came up with the improved android based smartphones with its Galaxy & Note series which works on an improved Google Play store.

At the consumer level, this cut throat competition among the various smartphone companies was boon and they were benefited with the cheaper and better phones.

With this boom in smartphone industry, many application developers came up with innovative apps which changed the way we interact with each other, for example, Grabtaxi, Viki, whatsapp, chaton, Uber etc.

Also, at enterprise level, due to the evolution of cloud computing (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and mobility, the cost of doing business has went down massively. Any enterprise success now depends on its investment on the techonology. The concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Unified Communication (UC) & work from home has become reality.

It is clear that these evolutions in technology is going to make our world more competitive and organizations will have to be on their toes to continuously develop their products/services, embrace new technological advancements & understand their customer needs . Organizations failing to do this will be quickly find themselves losing their competitive edge, loss in profitability and eventually will be out of business.

For example, once a mobile phone leaders, Nokia failed to react quickly to Apple’s iPhone introduction with an equivalent smartphone. Nokia was once boasting of their reliable GSM mobile phones but didn’t managed to understand the smartphone game and failed to do product innovation and found themselves losing market share and eventually had to sell its phone business to Microsoft.

In the current world, product lifecycles will be shorter hence its very important for companies to invest on their R&D and keep their ears open to their customer needs and react to it quickly.

The only segment which will benefit from the will be the consumer or the customers. They will be able to get a technically sound products at relatively cheaper prices, products will be better in quality & will receive good after sales service from the companies.

Overall, such an environment will benefit the world in which we live, peoples’ standard of living will improve and there will be advancement in all walks of life.

In conclusion, it is a fact that the new wave of disruptive technologies is already on its way and that it will provoke big changes in society. With the right measures, policy makers can facilitate an adequate implementation of the new disruptive technologies to the public wellfare of society.

The key factor to surviving in this dynamic era is to evaluate consumer behavior continuously when society and technologies are evolving faster than a company’s ability to adapt and offer products and services to consumers. Companies should shift their focus beyond surviving the latest disruptive technology to leading by investing in the future needs of the ever changing consumer

Claire Barber, general manager of Change and Technology for Spark, said: “Our re-engineering program has reduced multiple overlapping products and automated manual processes, leading to improvements in new service rollout and more effective cost utilization.”

Ericsson’s Service Agility Suite is expected to enable Spark New Zealand, a leading telecom operator in New Zealand, to better utilize assets and automate a number of service delivery functions to provide significant operational efficiencies.

“Our driving aim of the process is to better manage our network and customer services in order to continue to improve customer engagement and experience,” said Barber, at the Ericsson OSS / BSS Summit 2014 being held October 28 – 30 in New York.

Ericsson says operators are reviewing and updating the processes and systems with a strong focus on better customer engagement and improved experiences.

Spark, which is transitioning from telecom-defined to customer-defined interactions with a simplified product portfolio and approach, can automate processes and simplify those that must remain manual.

Elisabetta Romano, vice president and head of OSS and Service Enablement, Business Unit Support Solutions, Ericsson, said: “The pre-integrated product catalog and order management systems included in Ericsson Service Agility Suite, are essential building blocks for Spark’s IT operations update.”

NTT DoCoMo taps Oracle diameter solution for LTE roaming support

In a move to expand LTE roaming capabilities, Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo announced that it has installed Oracle Communications’ diameter signaling router platform.

Oracle explained that the router will allow the carrier to rapidly launch services to leverage its LTE network infrastructure, with a focus on support for LTE roaming as its customers travel overseas. The implementation was done in conjunction with Oracle partner NS Solutions and took a reported six months from purchase order to supporting live customer traffic. Supporting the rapid deployment was the platform’s implementation as a virtualized solution, with benefits including scalability and a small physical footprint.

“The rapid growth of LTE in Japan and roaming markets demands that we support LTE roaming to provide our customers with a consistently high-quality mobile experience no matter where they are,” said Hiroshi Nakamura, SVP and managing director of NTT DoCoMo’s Core Network Development Department.

Oracle late last month announced a number of new mobile-focused initiatives tapping into big data analytics for application development. The company said the moves were designed to allow customers to more easily transition Oracle databases and applications to the cloud.

LTE roaming is still in its infancy, with few operators currently supporting services. Software solutions, like diameter, are seen as being key to the rollout of roaming capabilities as they let operators more precisely monitor traffic across their networks.

XL Axiata swings to $74m loss for 9M14

Dylan Bushell-Embling

October 31, 2014

telecomasia.net

Indonesia’s XL Axiata swung to a 901 billion rupiah ($74.3 million) loss for the first nine months of 2014, due in large part to rising infrastructure expenses.

The result marks a reversal of fortune compared to the 917 billion rupiah profit that the operator reported for the same period last year.

Revenue grew 11% to 17.6 trillion rupiah, with data revenue swelling 43%, compared to just 4% for both voice and SMS revenue.

Data’s contribution to total revenue increased from 28% to 23% over the same period, while data traffic surged 136% year-on-year. The operator’s total data subscriber base increased to 31.2 million, or 53% of its total base.

The operator has been making moves to cut down on infrastructure costs, and as part of this strategy has arranged to sell 3,500 telecom towers to PT Solusi Tunas Pratama for 5.6 trillion rupiah. But the transaction has not yet been completed.

“As part of our commitment in data expansion for better experience, we have conducted a network transformation in key cities that have been implemented since early 2014,” XL Axiata president director Hansul Suhaimi commented.

“During Lebaran season, XL has succeeded to manage the traffic increase with result in lower customer complaint as much as 20% decline compared last year and higher successful rate of connection as high as 99.94%.”

Paolo Colella, vice president and head of Consulting and Systems Integration at Ericsson, said: “We can transform operators’ OSS / BSS solutions and enable telecom communication service providers to become more cost-efficient and agile.”

The combined assets of the two companies will offer better scale and operational efficiency and standardized carrier billing solution to the benefit of merchants, carriers and consumers.

“By coming together we’ve created a company that can realize the vision of charging purchases to your phone bill as a truly global payment method at scale,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku.

The new organization offers mobile payments in more than 80 countries, with a reach close to 5 billion consumers.

Based in San Francisco with offices in Europe, Latin America, and Asia, Boku reaches more than 4 billion consumers worldwide, across 67 different countries with more than 250 operators. Boku partners with global merchants including Facebook, Sony, and Electronic Arts.

mopay operates in more than 80 countries, reaching more than 4.3 billion consumers. mopay has more than 100 employees at locations in the United States, Germany, Austria, Spain, the United Kingdom, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Romania and Brazil.

BTRC officials say Robi will be allowed to transfer the shares when the guideline is formed.

The telecom regulator has approved the Robi proposal because the share transfer will assist Edotco to strengthen its business. This apart, the telecom tower proposal will help other mobile operators to improve their network in a more cost-effective way, said Md Ahsan Habib Khan, vice chairman of BTRC.

“We are pleased and welcome the decision of the BTRC. We firmly believe this is timely and will enable better infrastructure development in the telecom sector in Bangladesh,” said Matiul Islam Nowshad, chief corporate and people officer of Robi.

Chunghwa Telecom hints at lowering Capex for current year

Chunghwa Telecom invested 47.8 percent of total Capex for domestic fixed communications, 33.8 percent for mobile communications, 11.3 percent for internet, 5.8 percent on international fixed communications, and the remainder on others.

“It is possible to realize more than a 10 percent reduction in budgeted capital expenditures this year due to having our fiber broadband investment focus primarily on FTTH construction instead of network coverage,” said Rick L Tsai, chairman and CEO of Chunghwa Telecom.

Ericsson, in partnership with Smart Communications and REFUNITE, has announced the launch of a new family tracing and reconnection service in the Philippines.

The new SMS service, the first of its kind in Asia, will help Filipino families separated by Typhoon Haiyan unite, the company said.

After the typhoon hit the Philippines in November 2013, many families in the region were displaced. The UNHCR estimates there are still around 4 million displaced persons in the Visayas region.

With REFUNITE, a mobile and web platform, families can search for missing relatives by sending an SMS through any mobile and web-enabled device. More than 350,000 people have already registered on the global platform.

Erisson will provide the technology support for the platform.

the mobile service will soon be accessible to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan.

By the end of 2014, families will be able to search, reconnect, and communicate with missing loved ones in the aftermath of Haiyan. This will also benefit Filipino victims of emergencies and disasters in the future.

Smart will popularize REFUNITE family reconnection platform through SMS campaigns and/or cell broadcasts. The joint response will be piloted in Tacloban City, which was among those hardest-hit by Typhoon Haiyan, and then scaled to other regions.

An SMS-based service that enables people to search for their missing loved ones will be very useful, especially in countries like the Philippines that is frequently affected by natural calamities, said Orlando B. Vea, chief wireless advisor of Smart.

Sam Saba, Ericsson Head of the Southeast Asia and Oceania region, says: “We continue to seek new ways to leverage technology for good. This new partnership will aid the displaced Filipino population, and bring them closer to their goal of reconnecting with lost loved ones.”

Christopher Mikkelsen, co-founder of REFUNITE, says, “Everyone has the right to know where their family is. The Philippines experiences around 20 typhoons each year. Our goal is to leverage new technology to bring separated families back in touch.”

True commits extra $123m to 4G

Dylan Bushell-Embling

October 31, 2014

telecomasia.net

Thailand’s True Move has committed to investing 4 billion baht ($122.9 million) to expand its 4G network, and plans to roll out 4,000 more base stations by February.

The operator has set a target of having 7,000 base stations for its 2.1-GHz 4G network up and running by next February, the Nation reported.

According to True CEO Suphachai Chearavanont, demand for 4G is expected to take off in 2015, and the operator aims to be in a position to meet this demand and become the 4G market leader.

He said True aims to cover 60% of the population by February, up from 25% at present, and to have a 40% share of the 4G market in 2015.

True currently has around 800,000 4G subscribers, 19 million 3G users and 4 million still on 2G. Its 3G network consists of 13,500 850-MHz base stations and 5,300 in the 2.1-GHz band.

Suphachai also told the Nation he expects True Corp to turn a profit in the fourth quarter, and that the company expects continued growth now that it has solved its debt problem.

Japanese telecom giant SoftBank today invested US$627 million in Indian ecommerce site Snapdeal, and US$210 million in taxi app Ola, formerly Olacabs.

The investments into Snapdeal and Ola are part of a whopping US$10 billion earmarked by SoftBank to pump into India’s booming ecommerce, telecom, and aviation industries. Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank, shared this investment plan when he met Indian prime minister Narendra Modi as well as IT and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi on Monday.

“Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market,” Masayoshi Son said in a statement announcing the investment.

Ola’s existing investors – Tiger Global, Matrix Partners India, and Steadview Capital – participated in this latest investment round along with SoftBank. The investment-flush American entrant Uber has put Ola and other local on-demand taxi services in India under intense pressure in a price war. Just last week, Uber increased its discount for rides in Bangalore to 45 percent.

Emerging markets with huge potential

SoftBank has a one-third stake in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba, whose recent IPO in the US made Son the richest businessman in Japan with a net worth of US$16.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Clearly, a significant portion of those new funds will go into emerging markets. As Nikesh Arora, vice chairman of SoftBank, explains: “India has the third largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future.”

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola said, “Ola is at the forefront of the mobile internet revolution in India and Softbank as an investor and a strategic partner with its global network, brings in a lot of relevant experience and knowledge of this domain.”

Son is on a two-day visit to India, and more deals may be struck. Indian mobile commerce startup Paytm is also a candidate for a major funding.

“Japan’s richest businessman Mr. Masayoshi Son met me today. He expressed great optimism in India’s changed investment climate,” India’s IT and telecom minister said on his Facebook page.

Son is reported to have said during his meetings with Indian ministers that he expects Indian ecommerce to grow into a half-trillion-dollar business in the next 10 years. The Japanese telecom major already has a 50:50 joint venture with India’s Bharti Telecom – Bharti SoftBank is the backer of Indian messaging app Hike.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi got assurances of US$35 billion in investment from Japan during his visit to Tokyo last month. The US$10 billion pledged by SoftBank in New Delhi on Monday suggests that the mark will soon be crossed.

SingTel teams with MS to launch COSN

Dylan Bushell-Embling

October 30, 2014

telecomasia.net

SingTel and Australia’s Telstra have both announced initiatives aimed at diversifying their enterprise product lines with innovative new services.

SingTel has teamed up with Microsoft to launch the Cloud Operating System Network (COSN) in Asia-Pacific, the first operator in the region to do so.

COSN is designed to allow customers to move their data and workloads between the public cloud, a dedicated private cloud and SingTel’s virtual private cloud.

It uses SingTel’s hybrid cloud platform SingTel Managed Cloud, and will allow customers to use Microsoft applications over the operator’s cloud infrastructure.

“Our customers can keep their mission-critical data on-premises while harnessing the limitless computing power and storage of cloud on a pay-as-you-use basis,” SingTel Group Enterprise vice president Lee Han Kheng said.

Telstra separately announced the debut of a new business app marketplace. The operator aims to make Telstra Apps Marketplace a one-stop-shop for finding and buying the best business apps.

The marketplace will feature a catalog of apps – including Box and DocuSign – for business customers of all sizes.

Telstra is particularly targeting the 75% of Australian small businesses that are spending up to $1000 each year on paper, and aims for the marketplace to serve as a repository for apps that can eliminate these redundancies.

Ooredoo Myanmar aims to connect women with tech

Dylan Bushell-Embling

October 30, 2014

telecomasia.net

Ooredoo Myanmar has stepped up efforts to use technology to empower women in the nation, launching a community group and a natal healthcare app.

Ooredoo and the GSMA have just concluded the Connected Women conference in Yangon, an event which aimed to explore ways Myanmar’s technical revolution can benefit women. Discussions focused on health, education and entrepreneurship.

At the event, Ooredoo’s start-up acclerator Ideabox launched the community group Geek Girls Myanmar, which will bring together female IT professionals, students and enthusiasts aiming to improve female participation in Myanmar’s technology sector.

The operator also launched maymay, a healthcare app aimed at delivering access to pre and ante natal healthcare information and advice to women.

“We are passionate about working to help women overcome the barriers which prevent them from accessing technology, such as technological illiteracy, costs and cultural or gender practices,” Ooredoo Myanmar CEO Ross Comack said.

“We have a unique opportunity here in Myanmar to help address this issue early on in the country’s development.”

Ooredoo recently teamed up with the GSMA and the Clinton Global Initiative for a project aimed at tackling the mobile internet gender gap. The program will involve research in 12 markets including China, India and Indonesia, as well as technical projects.

Ericsson, Facebook and XL Axiata today said they created a new methodology to measure and improve network performance.

Network-wide optimization implemented through the joint project delivered up to 70 percent improvement in app coverage.

The initiative is part of the strategy of Internet .org to enhance mobile Internet penetration across the world.

Indonesia has the fourth-largest Facebook user base in the world.

In Indonesia, 75 percent of users are on 2G GSM/EDGE networks.

XL Axiata says its data traffic rose 142 percent in 2013. More than half of the operator’s 62.9 million subscribers are data users and a majority of those use Facebook.

Hasnul Suhaimi, chief executive officer XL Axiata, said: “We believe app coverage is essential and correlating Facebook application use cases with network-wide statistics has proven to be an innovative and efficient way to detect and address network optimization opportunities.”

The joint project by XL Axiata, Facebook and Ericsson developed a framework for evaluating user key performance indicators (KPI) based on simulated Facebook application use cases using a test agent and correlated these KPIs with network statistics.

Chris Daniels, vice president, Internet.org, Facebook, said: “We have a model for improving network performance that can be applied globally by mobile network operators. This will help ensure we have more efficient use of existing network capacity and resources.”

Warid Telecom selects Ericsson for 4G LTE network

Pakistan mobile service provider Warid Telecom today announced that it selected network vendor Ericsson as its supplier of 4G LTE.

Warid Telecom CEO Muneer Farooqui said: “Warid is gearing up for the 4G LTE launch with the best available network solutions and Ericsson has been committed to provide us with the technologies and services.”

Warid Telecom Capex plans

Warid Telecom 4G will be initially available in five key cities including Lahore and Islamabad.

Tariq Gulzar, chief financial officer, Warid Telecom, said: “Over the next five years we are investing over $470 million. We have recently invested over $100 million in LTE.”

Recently, Ericsson announced its association Indian telecom service provider Bharti Airtel to supply 4G LTE equipment when it rolls out 4G service on FD-LTE technology.

Warid Telecom has started an internal trial to test the network capacity and service reliability.

The company has already started delivering free 4G LTE SIMs to its subscribers who have 4G LTE enabled handsets.

The company also unveiled its 4G LTE logo during the ongoing GITEX Technology Week 2014 in Dubai on Sunday.

Pakistan is in the midst of an internet revolution, at the heart of which is the increasing uptake of smart devices and mobility. Connectivity via handsets already exceeds the number of connections through fixed line, and majority of first-time users experience the internet for the first time through their smartphones.

Warid Telecom does not have 4G license

The Abu Dhabi Group-owned Warid, the only mobile operator that refrained from participating in the recently concluded mobile spectrum auction in Pakistan, will now directly jump from 2G services to 4G technology.

Earlier, Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) in a press release dated 23 April 2014 said that Warid Telecom would seek permission of PTA to launch 4G.

This follows media reports suggesting that Warid Telecom would launch 4G without participating in the 4G auction.

In fact, PTA Chairman Syed Ismail Shah held a meeting with Warid Telecom CEO Muneer Farooqui in Pakistan in April.

The meeting discussed the reports of Warid Telecom launching 4G services without participating in Next Generation Mobile Services Award (NGMSA).

“Though the existing license of Warid is technology neutral, it would properly seek PTA’s consent. PTA will look into such a request based on the license conditions and in the best interest of the cellular industry and 3G and 4G,” PTA said in Apri.

PTA said that 4G LTE services by the existing licensee will have to go through a process as per their license conditions as well as requirements of assuring proper coverage and quality of service, enhanced monitoring requirements and commencement permission by PTA.

China Mobile will be utilizing these equipments for rolling outs its 4G LTE services in 2014 and 2015. Nokia Networks said deliveries under the agreement commenced in Q1 of this year.

Li Huidi, vice president of China Mobile, and Hans-Juergen Bill, executive vice president at Nokia and also chairman of the Board of Directors of Nokia Networks GmbH & Co KG in Germany, signed the deal today.

The agreement was signed at the Sino-German Economic Forum in Berlin.

China Mobile and 4G

China Mobile, which competes with China Telecom and China Unicom, is in the process of deploying 500,000 4G base stations. The world’s telecom operator aims to build the largest TD-LTE network in the world by the end of 2014.

With 46 TD-LTE radio references, Nokia Networks is supplying approximately half of all commercial TD-LTE networks globally and is the only vendor to have deployed TD-LTE on all six continents, the company said in a statement.

Tay Yeow Lian, managing director for Networks, SingTel, said: “We are using dual-layers of LTE FDD with LTE-Advanced Carrier Aggregation, and we know the performance of our mobile network is critical to ensuring that our customers have a great experience on their smartphones and tablets.”

“We will continue to explore the future option of bundling even TDD spectrum into the LTE carrier aggregation to expand network capacity, allowing our customers to enjoy consistent high data speed download even at high traffic areas,” Lian added.

SingTel and Ericsson conducted the demonstration at the SingTel office in Singapore on October 3, 2014, utilizing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, and Ericsson LTE software designed to support the company’s RBS6000 family of base stations for macro and small-cell networks.

FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables telecom operators to complement their FDD networks with a cost-efficient deployment of TDD. For operators using TDD bands, the TDD uplink coverage can be a constraint.

By combining TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation, low band FDD can deliver better uplink coverage while the TDD band can be leveraged for higher downlink capacity. LTE FDD / TDD Carrier Aggregation enables spectrum from both LTE FDD and LTE TDD to be combined to deliver better peak data speeds and improve app coverage across the network.

Ericsson in a statement said the TDD and FDD spectrum through Carrier Aggregation increases the effective TDD coverage area by up to 70 percent, reducing the cost of providing TDD coverage. It also ensures efficient utilization of spectrum, increasing both the combined FDD / TDD coverage area and capacity of the network.

Deutsche Telekom and China Mobile will form a joint venture to focus on connected cars in China.

A deal will be signed on Friday, Reuters reported.

The German telecoms will bring its technology for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, while China Mobile will provide the network.

The company’s investment in the M2M venture would be in the double-digit millions.

M2M service provider AT&T has already signed an agreement with China Mobile. This apart, AT&T has an agreement with GM to deploy LTE for the OnStar service.

Auto makers including GM, BMW, and Tesla are making investments in connected car programs.

Connected cars market

Connected cars segment is a big market opportunity for telecom service providers. Some telecom operators are seeing as much as 90 percent of their M2M revenue generated from the connected car segment.

In fact, North America is the foundation of the connected car business, accounting for 37 percent of global service revenue in 2013. Europe and Asia will be fast-growing regions, said Infonetics Research.

Infonetics expects revenue derived by service providers for the connectivity and other basic value-added services they provide to the automotive, transport, and logistics segment to more than triple from 2013 to 2018, to $16.9 billion.

The connected car services market is growing at a CAGR of 25 percent during 2013-2018, nearly 21 times the growth rate expected for traditional mobile voice and data services during the same time period.

The market for M2M technology is expected to be worth $20 billion a year by 2018, against $8 billion last year, according to telecoms research company Juniper.

M2M in Asia

Asia is the largest regional M2M market, accounting for 40 per cent of the world’s 189 million M2M connections at the end of 2013.

Asia added 55 million M2M net connections between 2010 and 2013 and China was the primary driver of growth in the region, adding nearly 39 million M2M connections during the period, said telecom industry association GSMA earlier.

Demand from the energy and transportation industries has driven much of this early growth, while M2M solutions are also gaining traction in the automotive, smart city, healthcare, education and retail sectors.

Connected cars have already attracted several chip makers.

Global chipset suppliers such as Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, and NVIDIA have recently started targeting automotive as a new business development opportunity, competing with established automotive chipset vendors such as Freescale, Renesas, TI, and STMicroelectronics.

Earlier, ABI Research said the installed base of wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014, about 20 percent more than in 2013. The number of devices will more than double from the current level, with 40.9 billion forecasted for 2020.

Alcatel-Lucent revenue not impressive against Ericsson and Nokia Networks

Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said: “We opened the second chapter of The Shift Plan, sharpening our focus on applying innovation to unlock growth in order to address our strategic ambitions within and outside of the telecoms sector.”

Alcatel-Lucent 7950 XRS IP Core router registered 4 new wins in Q3 for a total of 32 wins to date, including recent announcements of US operator Century Link, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. These come in addition to announcing Oi Brazil and Turk Telekom as customers and the deployment of XRS-40 at DE-CIX.

Nuage Networks added 4 new wins in the quarter, totaling 12 customers with traction across extra-large enterprises, cloud service providers and service providers.

IP Transport revenues dipped 3.3 percent to €527 million. Alcatel-Lucent said its terrestrial optics increased at a high single-digit rate as its WDM portfolio continued to drive growth in EMEA and APAC. Its submarine business witnessed stronger backlog, but was impacted by delays in certain contract milestones.

Year-to-date, 100G shipments represented 34 percent of total WDM line cards shipments compared to 26 percent in the same period of 2013. 100G platform was recently selected by Telefonica Spain, MTN Nigeria and Ucom in Armenia.

IP Platforms revenues decreased 14.2 percent to €322 million, reflecting its strategy to rationalize the product portfolio and leverage on growth engines such as IMS for VoLTE and Motive Customer Experience portfolio.

Since end of last year, sales in India has recovered, mainly driven by an increase in operator Capex spending in response to greater data uptake. The growth in Support Solutions is driven by OSS and BSS and TV & Media, said Ericsson.

Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg said: “We are executing on 4G/LTE contracts in Mainland China and Taiwan and improving sales in Japan. Furthermore, the investment climate in India continues to improve. Sales in parts of Europe, mainly UK and Germany, showed growth year-over-year while the development in southern Europe continued to be weak.”

For comparison, Nokia Networks, one of the main rivals of Ericsson, posted 13 percent increase in Q3 2014 revenue fuelled by 4G-driven mobile broadband roll outs in North America and Greater China.

HERE sold map data licenses for the embedded navigation systems of 3.2 million new vehicles globally in Q3 2014 compared to 2.6 million vehicles in Q3 2013.

HERE delivered a double digit sales increase in the quarter. “We are sharpening HERE’s strategy in order to better balance growth and profitability while ensuring relentless focus on priority segments such as automotive,” Suri said.

ZTE Q3 revenue up 24%, profit surges 191%

ZTE said smartphone and 4G equipments contributed to the growth in profit.

Q3 revenue of Nokia Networks, one of the main rivals of ZTE, grew 13 percent to EUR 2.9 billion mainly due to surge in 4G-driven mobile broadband business in North America and Greater China.

ZTE said sales of handsets increased more than 40 percent. It did not share shipment of smartphones. China, the United States and Japan contributed to the revenue growth in phone business.

ZTE posted growth in revenue from Carriers’ Networks, including 4G systems, in addition to Telecommunications Software Systems. The company did not disclose specific growth details about telecom carrier business.

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If the sales people understand this fact then they won’t feel that they are being rejected by a prospect. This happens because when a sales person approaches a prospect. the prospect is not in the mental state of buying. Also, nobody likes to be sold, people like to buy. Hence a sales person should guide him/her towards the buying decision instead to aggressively selling and feeling like being rejected by the prospect when he/she says NO or gives any objection.